Master of Science in Psychology

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Master of Science in Psychology

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/75362

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Degree Series

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School of Psychology

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 441

The Mediating Role of Work Ruminations in the Relationship Between Daily Work Demand Appraisals and Basic Psychological Need Fulfillment

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024-07-23) Li, Yuhua

Fulfillment of the three basic psychological needs (BPN) has consistently shown positive effects in the workplace. Existing studies that examined job demands as antecedents to BPN fulfillment typically paid little attention to the cognitive coping mechanisms that could carry on the effects of job demands and continue influencing work-related BPN when at home. Further, although job demands have impacted BPN fulfillment, the full-fledged model containing challenge, hindrance and threat job demands and BPN satisfaction and frustration facets have not yet been explored. The present study addresses these two gaps by leveraging the challenge-hindrance-threat stressor framework, the work ruminations research (i.e., problem-solving pondering and intrusive negative rumination), and the BPN fulfillment research. I propose that differential daily job demand experiences will impose distinct effects on work ruminations, which will further extend the impact of job demands on work-related BPN fulfillment. A 10-day daily ESM study (N = 110, n = 1830) found support for daily threatening job demands to trigger at-home intrusive negative rumination, which in turn negatively affects BPN fulfillment. All three facets of job demands and the two types of rumination showed distinct effects on BPN fulfillment. These findings provide valuable theoretical and practical implications.
Effects of Individual Differences in Personality Traits and Self-Concept of Abilities on Willingness to Adopt AI Tools

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024-04-29) Provine, Lucas

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to automate and augment tasks in a variety of domains from the workplace to daily life. However, little is known about the influence that individual differences in personality and ability self-concept have on people’s attitudes and adoption of AI technology to assist with tasks. The objective of this study was to determine how select personality traits (e.g., extraversion, neuroticism, and propensity to trust) and ability self-concept (e.g., verbal, math, spatial, and organizational) contribute to one’s willingness to adopt AI for decision-making purposes in various contexts. I leveraged the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003) to do so. To accomplish this, 231 working adults (126 females and 105 males) were recruited from Prolific to participate in a vignette study that involved assessment of attitudes and behavioral intentions to use AI in 22 scenarios. The results indicated that: (1) the personality and self-concept variables do not contribute additional meaningful variance in predicting behavioral intentions to use AI over and above UTAUT’s performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence variables; (2) one’s general propensity to trust others is associated with more positive expectations of AI performance; (3) higher ability self-concept is positively associated with perceiving AI as requiring less effort to use; and (4) attitudes and intentions toward using AI are significantly lower when individuals perceive personal situational liability for the consequences of errors that might occur while using the AI. Future researchers are encouraged to further explore how salient situational factors and stable individual difference variables might interact to inform people’s attitudes and intentions toward using AI.
The Role of Microbreaks in the Work Recovery Process

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024-04-15) Moran, Lauren H.

Job stress remains a threat to the health and productivity of workers nationwide, and in response, increased efforts have been made to understand how individuals recover from unavoidable stressors in the workplace. However, little research has been done on how at-work breaks such as microbreaks are related to off-work recovery experiences. This study sought to uncover when and why individuals use microbreaks as a part of the broader recovery process, as well as how family demands impact the relationship between fatigue and microbreaks. I test a serial mediation model at the daily level in which evening relaxation predicts next-day evening relaxation via morning fatigue and microbreak frequency. Specifically, I examine whether high evening relaxation predicts lower next-day morning fatigue, which in turn predicts lower at-work microbreak frequency, which then predicts higher evening relaxation. I also consider whether family role overload moderates the relationship between morning fatigue and microbreak frequency. Experience-sampling methodology was used to examine these relationships over a period of 4 weeks, with multilevel structural equation modeling used to examine the posited relationships. None of the hypothesized paths were significant. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.
Feedback-Seeking Behavior in Synchronous Remote Learning of Juggling: Effects of Individual Motivational Traits and Self-Efficacy

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024-03-13) Qi, Ziyu

Existing literature examining remote learning has not sufficiently addressed the remote acquisition of procedural skills. Furthermore, the differences in teacher-learner interaction between remote and in-person environments have not been considered in a procedural skill learning context. In the current study, I examined the differences in feedback-seeking behavior between remote and in-person learning environments. I also examined whether predictors of feedback-seeking behavior, namely goal orientation and self-efficacy, continue to predict feedback-seeking in a remote setting. In the current study, undergraduate student participants’ goal orientation, self-efficacy in 3-ball cascade juggling, and self-concept in motor abilities were measured. Participants’ feedback-seeking behaviors were subsequently measured while learning a 3-ball cascade juggling task in either remote or in-person conditions. The study’s results showed that feedback-seeking behavior did not differ significantly between remote and in-person environments except for feedback-seeking via self-monitoring. No significant relationship was found between goal orientation, self-efficacy, and verbal feedback-seeking frequency, potentially due to insufficient power. Exploratory qualitative comparisons examining active feedback-seekers suggested that there were potential qualitative differences in the contents of feedback-seeking. Findings in existing literature considering remote classroom learning were largely not replicated, suggesting that patterns of feedback-seeking behaviors in complex classroom environments may not be applicable to lab learning. Similarly, the motivational model of feedback-seeking may not be suitable. Still, exploratory analyses provided preliminary evidence that a remote learning environment did impact feedback-seeking and general learning behaviors in procedural acquisition processes.
Conflict in Teams: An Episodic Approach to Assessing the Mediation of Conflict Behaviors on the Relationship Between Personality and Team-Level Outcomes

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024-03-12) Drose, Cooper

Conflict management behaviors have long been studied as critical components in successful teams because they may help to enhance positive and mitigate negative outcomes associated with conflict. Recent research has called for a more dynamic understanding of conflict; this study serves to answer this call by evaluating conflict as an emergent phenomenon using the IMOI model using an episodic methodological approach. Using a lab sample of 83 teams and 292 participants, this study looked at personality as a predictor of conflict behaviors and the subsequent impact these behaviors have on team performance and cohesion. Results from this study found that the Dark Triad was not a significant predictor of conflict behaviors in the first conflict episode. I then called upon the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory to predict conflict behaviors over time, finding that the use of individualistic and collectivistic conflict behaviors in the first episode significantly negatively predicted the continued use of these behaviors in subsequent episodes. Additionally, it was found that the use of individualistic and collectivistic conflict behaviors from the focal individual significantly negatively predicted the use of these behaviors in others within the team in subsequent episodes. While it was ultimately found that increased use of individualistic conflict behaviors negatively impacted the team-level group cohesion, collectivistic and individualistic conflict behaviors were not found to be a significant mediator between the Dark Triad and team level outcomes of performance and group cohesion. This study contributes to our understanding of conflict as a dynamic construct within teams, as well as providing further evidence in support of COR theory.
Great Expectations: The Consequences of Employee Caffeine Use to Meet Leader Performance Expectations

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024-02-12) Garcia, Spencer Christian

Leaders typically have expectations for their followers’ performance. These expectations can serve to improve follower performance. However, when leader performance expectations become sufficiently high, they may become demanding for followers. To meet these demands, individuals may use compensatory behaviors, including stimulant use (i.e., caffeine). However, these variables may relate to further negative well-being consequences (i.e., mental fatigue). Drawing from Conservation of Resources (COR), this study sought to elucidate the potential relationships between these variables by testing their interplay in a loss spiral. This study used an archival dataset that included 127 employees who completed 3 daily surveys across 10 working days. Results do not suggest that a loss spiral is occurring. Caffeine was not a significant predictor of performance or other next-day mental fatigue. Leader performance expectations positively predicted same-day caffeine use, same-day perceived job performance, and next-day mental fatigue. This highlights both positive and aversive consequences of leader performance expectations. This study contributes to the understanding of leadership theories and the effects of high leader performance expectations on employees. Notably, this study makes these contributions at the within-person level.
Directability Through AI Customization: The Effect of Choice on Trust and Acceptance in Highly Automated Vehicles

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-12-05) Scott-Sharoni, Sidney Tammie

People feel apprehensive about using or relying on highly automated vehicles (American Automotive Association, 2019). One method of assuaging fears involves providing explanations for the system’s behaviors using a Human-Machine Interface (HMI). However, understanding the amount of information for optimal human-automation interaction can prove difficult due to differences in individuals’ preferences, experiences, and needs. An underexplored method that may account for these discrepancies involves providing users with choices or customization. The Coactive Design Approach suggests that including directability, or the power to influence a system’s actions, may improve how users interact with systems (Johnson et al., 2014). The following study investigated how customization affordances and modified vehicle aspect of a Level 4 automated vehicle affected trust and acceptance. One hundred twenty participants experienced one highly automated simulator drive, during which they engaged in a visually demanding game. A MANOVA assessed the interaction of and main effects of customization availability and modified vehicle aspect on trust and acceptance. While participants who customized had higher average trust and acceptance in the automated vehicle than participants who did not customize, only the main effect of vehicle aspect significantly impacted the multivariate dimension of trust and acceptance in the automated vehicle. That is, modifications to the vehicle impacted users regardless of whether they chose the modification. The game score and subjective trust did significantly correlate to a small, positive extent, indicating that higher trust in a system may improve non-driving related task performance. Future research should continue to investigate the role of choice in the interaction between individuals and highly automated systems to understand the psychological impacts of directability.
Testing the Useful Field: Perceptual Learning Is an Important Factor in UFOV Training Improvements

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-08-09) Lloyd, Maugan

Computerized cognitive training on the Useful Field of View (UFOV) is associated with improved driving behavior in older adults, but the underlying reasons remain subject to debate. Some researchers think that UFOV training enhances fundamental cognitive skills such as selective attention or processing speed, while others remain unconvinced of this so-called process-based approach. Typically, UFOV training includes a briefly presented central discrimination task, coupled with a consistently mapped (CM) peripheral localization task. As the peripheral stimuli for both target and distractors remain constant, perceptual learning would be expected with extended practice on the peripheral task. This study compared training on variably mapped targets (VM), in which targets and distractors come from the same set, and consistently mapped versions of a UFOV task to isolate the component of perceptual learning. When comparing the transfer cost for participants trained on an adaptive UFOV paradigm when transferred to unfamiliar stimuli, VM - trained groups do not exhibit the same performance decrements as CM – trained groups due to the difference in target familiarity. Specifically, we observed that transfer to new CM stimuli following extensive practice was associated with a large performance cost for the CM-trained group due to the loss of the familiar stimulus advantage (d = -1.31, t = -7.91, pbonf < 0.001), while smaller changes in performance were noted for VM trained participants transferred to new VM stimuli (d = -0.86, t = -4.93, pbonf < 0.001). Our findings suggest that future research exploring the relationship between cognitive or everyday task performance and training improvements on the UFOV must take the effects of perceptual learning into account. Furthermore, the study challenges previous assertions that UFOV training improves processing speed, which in turn improves older adult driving.
Environment Schema-Like Influences in Spatial Navigation: An fMRI Study

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-08-01) Maxim, Paulina

Studies on spatial schemas have primarily come from rodent studies examining the development of task representations in the animal’s brain. Such studies provide support for accelerated learning of novel spatial associations when prior associations already exist, and notably, there seems to be rapid disengagement of the hippocampus when encoding new experiences within an existing cognitive map. Research has set out to test whether existing spatial knowledge can also benefit novel learning in humans, and if there are similar neural characteristics during prospective planning and recall of memories related to existing spatial knowledge. The present study tested healthy young adult participants across two days in a virtual navigation task and used fMRI to examine complementary views of how the medial temporal lobe and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) contribute to route planning and navigation. Univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses revealed: 1) Functional differences in subdivisions of the mPFC, sometimes agreeing, but other times responding differently across various stages of navigation (e.g., planning vs. goal arrival), and differing in how they explain individual differences in navigation behavior. 2) Broad agreement between when and how the hippocampus (right hemisphere in particular) and mPFC (posterior-ventral mPFC in particular) are engaged for task stages, represent environments, and track participant differences – a finding which aligns well with their anatomical interconnections, but may contradict the competitive view from models of schema memory.
Memory Self-Modification as a Function of Confidence during Reconsolidation

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-07-31) Yaun, Jeffrey W.

Students are often surprised to find that the grade they receive on an exam does not comport with the confidence they felt about their answers. What use, then, is confidence if it does not necessarily indicate accuracy? Better understanding of this question may not lie in approaching from a perspective of accuracy, but in the consistency of recall. Does confidence influence what is recalled, and does the act of recall itself provide enough of an opportunity to change what is recalled? What does this indicate about reconsolidation, the proposed process of reactivating and updating memory? This study examined these questions by providing participants with a pair of videos and a set of questions about their content, along with confidence judgements about their answers. After 4-day gap periods, participants twice recorded free-recall sessions about one of the two videos, then answered the original questions again. Results indicated that initial confidence is a strong predictor of subsequent recall and the consistency of recall, but failed to be a predictor for accuracy of recall. The predicted interaction of recall with confidence to predict consistency also failed to be statistically significant. Confidence may therefore play a greater role in the consistency of recall than in objective accuracy. The lack of a recall effect on accuracy or consistency may also indicate a more gradual process for changes in memory traces than predicted by reconsolidation theory.